Subscribers face an increasingly large number of choices for entertainment programming, which is delivered over networks such as cable TV systems, over-the-air broadcast systems, and switched digital access systems which use telephone company twisted wire pairs for the deliver of signals.
Cable television service providers have typically provided one-way broadcast services but now offer high-speed data services and can combine traditional analog broadcasts with digital broadcasts and access to Internet web sites. Telephone companies can offer digital data and video programming on a switched basis over digital subscriber line technology. Although the subscriber may only be presented with one channel at a time, channel change requests are instantaneously transmitted to centralized switching equipment and the subscriber can access the programming in a broadcast-like manner. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer Internet access and can offer access to text, audio, and video programming which can also be delivered in a broadcast-like manner in which the subscriber selects xe2x80x9cchannelsxe2x80x9d containing programming of interest. Such channels may be offered as part of a video programming service or within a data service and can be presented within an Internet browser.
Along with the multitude of programming choices which the subscriber faces, subscribers are subject to advertisements, which in many cases subsidize or pay for the entire cost of the programming. While advertisements are sometimes beneficial to subscribers and deliver desired information regarding specific products or service, consumers generally vie advertising as a xe2x80x9cnecessary evilxe2x80x9d for broadcast type entertainment.
In order to deliver more targeted programming and advertising to subscribers, it is necessary to understand their likes and dislikes to a greater extent than is presently done today. Systems which identify subscriber preferences based on their purchases and responses to questionnaires allow for the targeted marketing of literature in the mail, but do not in any sense allow for the rapid and precise delivery of programming and advertising which is known to have a high probability of acceptance to the subscriber. In order to determine which programming or advertising is appropriate for the subscriber, knowledge of that subscriber and the subscriber product and programming preferences is required.
Specific information regarding a subscriber""s viewing habits or the Internet web sites they have accessed can be stored for analysis, but such records are considered private and subscribers are not generally willing to have such information leave their control. Although there are regulatory models which permit the collection of such data on a xe2x80x9cnotice and consentxe2x80x9d basis, there is a general tendency towards legal rules which prohibit such raw data to be collected.
With the migration of services from a broadcast based model to a client-server based model in which subscribers make individualized request for programming to an Internet access provider or content provider, there is opportunity to monitor the subscriber viewing characteristics to better provide them with programming and advertising which will be of interest to them. A server may act as a proxy for the subscriber requests and thus be able to monitor what a subscriber has requested and is viewing. Since subscribers may not want this raw data to be utilized, there is a need for a system which can process this information and generate statistically relevant subscriber profiles. These profiles should be accessible to others on the network who may wish to determine if their programming or advertisements are suitable for the subscriber.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a subscriber characterization system which can generate and store subscriber characteristics which reflect the probable demographics and preferences of the subscriber and household.
The present invention includes a system for characterizing subscribers watching video or multimedia programming based on monitoring the requests made by the subscriber for programming to a server which contains the content or which requests the content from a third party. The server side of the network is able to monitor the subscriber""s detailed selection choices including the time duration of their viewing, the volume the programming is listened at, and the program selection.
The server side collects text information about that programming to determine what type of programming the subscriber is most interested in. In addition the system can generate a demographic description of the subscriber or household which describes the probable age, income, gender and other demographics. The resulting characterization includes probabilistic determinations of what other programming or products the subscriber/household will be interested in.
In a preferred embodiment the textual information which describes the programming is obtained by context mining of text associated with the programming. The associated text can be from the closed-captioning data associated with the programming, an electronic program guide, or from text files associated with or part of the programming itself.
The system can provide both session measurements which correspond to a profile obtained over a viewing session, or an average profile which corresponds to data obtained over multiple viewing sessions.
The present invention also encompasses the use of heuristic rules in logical form or expressed as conditional probabilities to aid in forming a subscriber profile. The heuristic rules in logical form allow the system to apply generalizations which have been learned from external studies to obtain a characterization of the subscriber. In the case of conditional probabilities, determinations of the probable content of a program can be applied in a mathematical step to a matrix of conditional probabilities to obtain probabilistic subscriber profiles indicating program and product likes and dislikes as well for determining probabilistic demographic data.
One advantage of the present invention is that it allows consumers the possibility to permit access to probabilistic information regarding their household demographics and programming/product preferences, without revealing their specific viewing history. Subscribers may elect to permit access to this information in order to receive advertising which is more targeted to their likes/dislikes. Similarly, a subscriber may wish to sell access to this statistical data in order to receive revenue or receive a discount on a product or a service.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the resulting probabilistic information can be stored locally and controlled by the subscriber, or can be transferred to a third party which can provide access to the subscriber characterization. The information can also be encrypted to prevent unauthorized access in which case only the subscriber of someone authorized by the subscriber can access the data.
These and other features and objects of the invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which should be read in light of the accompanying drawings.